“This summit was about strengthening our alliance, addressing the challenges of our world today and the threats we will face in the future,” Biden said. It is unclear whether any of the steps taken to respond to the war in Ukraine at this week’s meetings in Europe – new sanctions, more military aid and a revitalized NATO – could change the dynamics of the battlefield in favor of Russia. With Russia mired in a long-term deteriorating conflict, NATO leaders are leaving here to take historic steps to tackle a fundamentally altered security situation. It gave the organization a renewed sense of purpose after years of hesitation on how to approach Russia. The alliance is ready to grow after the official invitation of Finland and Sweden to join. The way was open for both countries, each with a long history of military alignment, as Turkey withdrew its objections, giving this summit a somewhat unexpected boost as it began. The leaders made significant improvements to the NATO force position along its eastern extremity, increasing the number of high-alert troops by sevenfold. Biden announced new rotations of US troops in the Baltic and Romania, new ships in Spain and planes in the United Kingdom, and for the first time a permanent military headquarters in Poland. After dancing around the issue for years, NATO made it clear in its updated mission statement that Russia is now the “most important threat to Allied security.” And he cited China for the first time, saying the budding partnership between Moscow and Beijing “runs counter to our values.” Overall, the achievements are tantamount to a fundamental change for the alliance, which has struggled for years to determine the best way to approach Russia. President Vladimir Putin, fearing the expansion of the alliance to the east, now faces a much more united collective. “He wanted less NATO,” Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said this week. “Now President Putin is getting more NATO on its borders.” Even an enlarged and more muscular NATO, however, may not be enough to quickly end the fighting in Ukraine. While the buzzword of this week’s summit in Europe was “unity”, there are still private disagreements among leaders over the next phase of the war. While some are pushing for a decisive victory on the battlefield, others believe that stronger efforts should be made to mediate a settlement, especially in the midst of economic repercussions at home. “The consensus is that the war in Ukraine will continue for an extended period of time,” US National Intelligence Director Avril Haynes told a conference on Wednesday, offering a grim assessment in the short term of what has turned into a tough conflict. Haynes said Putin probably believes time is on Russia’s side because he believes the West will eventually get tired of backing Ukraine. “None of this is a good omen for a peaceful settlement,” he said, acknowledging that the US assessment of the situation was “bleak”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged NATO leaders to help him regain the initiative during a summit speech on Wednesday, calling for more modern artillery and continued support to fight the Russians. “The war must not continue. To break the advantage of Russian artillery, we need much more than these modern systems, modern artillery,” Zelensky said.
